India – To Sell Or Not To Sell, Is That The Question?

The Guardian released an article today based on some finding by the Hindustan Times. Essentially the Guardian article argues that public distribution systems in India are “undermined by bureaucracy and corruption,” resulting in full warehouses and empty stomachs of ordinary citizens.

 

I decided to pursue this issue further. Using the aforementioned newspaper I visited the Hindustan Times website and learned more about their section entitled “tracking hunger”.

State	% of underweight children	% of undernutritioned children	% of hunger deaths under the age of 5
Rajasthan	40.4%	14.0%	8.5%
Gujarat	44.7%	22.3%	6.1%
Madhya Pradesh	59.8%	23.4%	9.4%
Maharashtra	36.7%	27.0%	4.7%
Karnataka	37.6%	28.1%	5.5%
Kerala	22.7%	28.6%	1.6%
West Bengal	38.5%	18.5%	5.9%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/TrackingHunger-statistics/trackinghunger/fullcoverage-FCLid.aspx

Using the statistics above one can evidently conclude that managing the nutrition of India’s future, its children, has to be a priority. To play devil’s advocate one can also argue over the credibility of such statistics. Despite being entitled “Alarming child malnutrition levels in major states” no date was provided next to the table, and if it were not for the 2010 copyright date at the bottom of the website, the credibility of these statistics could be questioned.

 

How were these statistics compiled?

What were the qualifications of a “major” state?

 

Those are but a few questions the statistics above can raise, but according to the Hindustan Times on the front page of their tracking hunger section,

 

Emerging India either does not know or ignores the statistics: Half its children are malnourished, a record worse than the world’s symbol for deprivation, sub-Saharan Africa. India is ranked 66th out of 88 countries in the Global Hunger Index drawn up by the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Outsiders who have never been to India, and I fall within that category, can question statistics like the one above for a long period of time, yet while questions are being asked it is evident that organization and distribution needs to be improved. Corruption has to be addressed if not for the sole reason that if one guard prematurely closes a warehouse full of food many more could perish as a result of that decision. Reasons for why corruption exists vary, but what remains constant is the belief that while the individual benefits, the collective suffer as whole. There is no such thing as working time machine, well at least not that I know of, but if there were I would like to visit India in the eighties and even the nineties to witness how the generation of today was shaped by the generations before. Ultimately, just as a strong foundation is needed to build a sturdy home so too is a strong commitment needed to improve public distribution systems in India. It is only by working with the community that such a hope can flourish into a reality.   

 

Does the relation between the economy and the environment always have to result in the economy taking a metaphorical beating?

Image by Brooklyn Museum via Flickr

 

According to an article posted today on the Khaleej Times Online, Egypt’s economy is predicted to experience an increase in “stress” due to the affects of climate change on the agricultural sector. According to Reuters it was reported that 10 to 12 percent of land used for farming could be lost due to potential occurrences of flooding and the expected decrease in fertility. Yet the economy does not always have to shape to the environment. If necessity is the mother of invention, as Plato is famously known for remarking, then there is profit via the creation of environmental technology to alter the climate, clean up oil spills, or even capture and contain greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Just as a coin always has two sides, so too does the relationship between economies and the environment. Drought is devastating for farmers who may not have supplementary income but good business evolves to the task at hand, creating more jobs, and hopefully at the same time increases awareness as to the effect interactions between the environment and people ultimately has on food production.